The One-Hour Dress (in three books)
Mary Brooks Pickens was founder of the Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts & Sciences (WIDAS) in Scranton, PA. She also developed a method of constructing wearable dresses in one hour. She published three of these particular instructional booklets, two in 1924 and one in 1925. They are small booklets, about 16 to 20 pages each, that take one through the steps of using one's own body measurements to cut the appropriate fabric pieces; no paper patterns were created.
Downloadable copies of these booklets are available here, here and here. I've now seen them all over the Internet, priced from $22 to the cheapest version found here at Emailed Vintage Patterns for $5. (However, I have not ordered this book or any others from these retailers so I cannot guarantee what you will receive from any of these links. As always on the Internet, tread lightly.)
Other mentions of the One-Hour Dress:
Wonderhowto.com has a video series of tutorials using one of these booklets
4 comments:
is this like the 3-hour sweater? ;)
i'm not convinced 20s styles look good on me but this sounds very promising!
Oh my. It takes me at least 30 minutes to draft anything from directions. I suppose the one hour is only sewing time. :)
What's the 3-hour sweater?
Check out the video tutorial links, I think cutting and sewing is included in the one-hour.
And just wait...a few posts from now there are more one to two-hour 1920s dresses coming up.
3 hour sweater pattern:
http://www.lrvictor.bravepages.com/Free/3-HOUR.htm
one of mine: http://thefabledneedle.blogspot.com/2007/05/were-painting-roses-red.html
i made a green one too. took longer than 3 hours though!
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